The United States and the United Kingdom have signed a joint law enforcement agreement aimed at taking down scam centers that use cryptocurrency and cyber-enabled investment fraud. The memorandum of understanding, announced Thursday by the US Department of Justice, brings together the US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, and the UK National Crime Agency. The DOJ described it as a "first-of-its-kind" international cooperation agreement of its type.

The development was announced publicly on X:

BREAKING: US AND UK JOIN FORCES AGAINST CRYPTO SCAM CENTERS

The US and UK have launched a joint effort targeting global scam centers involved in crypto fraud and cyber-enabled investment scams.

Authorities will share intelligence and coordinate investigations. The DOJ says US… pic.twitter.com/7eAR3xApBi

— AMk.Crypto 🧢 (@leeky_k_crypt) September 4, 2026 (https://x.com/leeky_k_crypt/status/2095752721924014122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

What the Agreement Covers

Under the new arrangement, agencies on both sides of the Atlantic will conduct parallel investigations into shared targets. They will exchange information on organized crime networks and jointly decide which country should prosecute each case. Officials said they have already identified overlapping cases between the two jurisdictions.

Cross-border intelligence sharing addresses a core challenge in prosecuting crypto fraud: scam operations typically route victims, operators, servers, and laundered funds through multiple countries, meaning no single jurisdiction holds the full picture of a network. By coordinating on which side prosecutes each case, the agreement is also intended to avoid duplicated or conflicting proceedings.

A joint, in-person disruption event involving private-sector partners is scheduled to take place in London in early October.

The agreement builds on the Scam Center Strike Force, launched in November 2025 by US Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. That task force targets Chinese organized crime networks operating scam compounds, mostly located in Southeast Asia. Its membership includes the FBI, the US Secret Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations, and it also cooperates with the US Treasury, the State Department, and private companies. The involvement of private-sector partners reflects how these investigations often depend on data held by crypto exchanges, blockchain analytics firms, and telecom platforms rather than on traditional financial records alone.

Losses Are Rising

The scale of the problem continues to grow. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, reported losses from crypto investment fraud reached $8.65 billion in 2025, an increase of 89% from $4.57 billion in 2023. Authorities caution that actual losses are likely far higher, as many victims never come forward. Crypto investment fraud, sometimes called "pig butchering," typically involves fraudsters building long-term relationships with victims before steering them toward fake trading platforms, which makes the schemes harder to detect and the losses larger per victim than many other fraud types.

According to the DOJ, these scam operations are frequently linked to human trafficking and money laundering. Reporting on scam compounds in Southeast Asia, including by the UN human rights office, has documented workers trafficked and coerced into running fraud operations, an aspect that has pushed the issue beyond financial crime into forced-labor enforcement.

International Enforcement Actions

Authorities in other countries have already moved against similar networks. On April 29, Dubai police led a joint operation with the FBI and China's Ministry of Public Security. The raid resulted in 276 arrests and shut down at least nine crypto scam centers. Six people were charged in connection with schemes that used fake crypto investment platforms to collect deposits from victims.

Governments in Southeast Asia have also pushed for harsher penalties. Myanmar's military government proposed legislation in May that would impose sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison for digital currency fraud, with the death penalty applicable in cases where workers were killed. Myanmar's parliament passed the bill on July 28, although it had not yet received presidential assent at the time.

The new US-UK alliance marks a fresh phase in international efforts to disrupt crypto fraud networks that operate across borders. What to watch next is the London disruption event in early October, which will indicate whether the agreement produces concrete enforcement action and whether other jurisdictions join similar arrangements.